Favorites Sweep Canterbury Stakes

Trainer Stacy Charette-Hill won the two richest American Quarter Horse races of the season for the second consecutive year Sunday at Canterbury Park. Send Me This Wagon won the $52,775 Canterbury Park Quarter Horse Derby by a length, and Defiant Red Rooster won the $122,375 Mystic Lake Northlands Futurity by the same margin. Both were sired by PYC Paint Your Wagon and ridden by Jorge Torres.

Defiant Red Rooster was ridden by Jorge Torres and is owned by Randy Hill and Vickie and Bobby Joe Hammer. Final time for the 350 yards was :17.764 seconds. GW Shezaspecialrose, also trained by Charette-Hill, was second, and Royal Diamond Cartel was placed third after Greyice was disqualified for interference. RG Three and Carex were scratched at the gate leaving Defiant Red Rooster in the outside post position.

“After the scratches I was afraid he was going to drift out like he did in the trial race,” Torres said. “And he did, but he was too good.”

Defiant Red Rooster, the wagering favorite, returned $3.00 to win. The gelded son of PYC Paint Your Wagon was bred in Oklahoma by Bill Price.

“When we started training he was probably one of our top three,” Charette-Hill said. “We had to stop on him for a while so I knew going in he was going to be green. When they scratched those two I was hoping he would just stand still. He is very impatient. He’s one of those that wants to just do it.”

Watch live American Quarter Horse racing from around the country at Q-Racing Video!

Torres also rode the Canterbury Park Quarter Horse Derby winner. Send Me This Wagon, a PYC Paint Your Wagon filly bred in Oklahoma by Michael Pohl, is owned by Charette-Hill, Randy Hill and Jana Harrison. The 3-year-old filly, who returned $4.00, covered the 400-yard distance in :19.583, the fastest time in the 27-year history of the race.

“She broke in a bit,” Torres said. “Other than that I had a great trip.”

Charette-Hill had eight of the 10 starters in the race including second-place finisher This Wagons Okay. Xoom, trained by Edward Ross Hardy, finished third.